J Street’s a crooked road

The organization succeeded in identifying a leftist constituency looking for a voice in Washington. But ‘The Washington Times’ exposé is so devastating to its credibility and standing that its constituency needs a new champion

By LENNY BEN-DAVID

September 27, 2010 23:34

LENNY BEN-DAVID.
(photo credit: Courtesy)

Bravo to The Washington Times’s national security correspondent Eli Lake for his
exposé of J Street over the weekend. The so-called pro-Israel organization is
bursting with scandals about the identity of its contributors, its
decision-making process, its conflicting policies on Iran sanctions, its ties to
pro-Iranian and Arab American organizations and more. But many reporters have
been reluctant to shine a spotlight on it, fearful of running afoul of the White
House, for whom J Street proudly serves as President Barack Obama’s “blocking
back.”

Since J Street’s founding, Jeremy Ben-Ami has repeatedly lied
about his organization’s dependence on Israel’s super-critic George
Soros. Lake revealed that J Street’s US tax records prove that Soros and
his family are major contributors.

J Street’s tax form 990 for the year
ending in June 2009 showed that Soros contributed $145,000, daughter Andrea
Soros gave $50,000 and son Jonathan an additional $50,000. That’s a significant
percentage of J Street’s budget in its first years.

Despite all J
Street’s denials, it’s clear that the organization abides by the “golden rule –
he with the gold rules.” J Street’s policies strive to actualize Soros’s 2007
manifesto “On Israel, America and AIPAC” that appeared in the New York Review of
Books. Soros’ influence goes a long way in explaining J Street’s very existence,
its frequent criticism of Israel, its refusal to condemn the Goldstone Report,
its flirtation with Iran, its refusal to support Israel’s Gaza operation and its
active opposition to some American Jewish organizations.

The IRS tax
returns also showed that J Street paid its vice president Jim Gerstein $61,000
for “consulting” services by the Gerstein-Agne company. Elsewhere, J Street
listed $46,000 for polling expenses, presumably to Gerstein’s polling firm,
which has published several polls for Ben-Ami’s lobby. Whether the polling fees
were part of the consulting fees is irrelevant. The “business transactions
involving interested persons,” to use the IRS phrase, is a questionable
corporate practice by a supposedly not-for-profit organization. It also totally
destroys the credibility of J Street’s self-serving polls.

The IRS forms
also list J Street’s five officers and directors – something J Street never
before publicized. For good reason. The fifth listed is Mort Halperin, a veteran
Washington foreign policy hand who also serves as senior adviser at Soros’ Open
Society Institute. In October 2009, at the height of congressional condemnation
of the Goldstone Report, Judge Richard Goldstone sent a letter to members of
Congress defending his criticism of Israel. One enterprising reporter checked
the document’s “properties” and discovered the real author: Mort
Halperin.

BEYOND THE Soros contributions to J Street, equally troubling
is a huge $811,697 contribution from a “Consolacion Esdicul” from Hong Kong. It
appears that Consolacion is “Connie” Esdicul, who Google reveals is a member of
the Hong Kong Rotary Club, living in the Happy Valley section of Hong Kong. But
little is known about the woman. J Street claims she was solicited by Bill
Benter, “a prominent J Street supporter from Pittsburgh.”

Actually,
Benter, who is not Jewish, is considered the world’s most successful bettor on
horse races, and hangs out at the Happy Valley track. Racing sheets report that
Benter places $250,000 bets. According to Wired.com, “Nobody’s more skilled at
making bets than Bill Benter, regarded by many of his peers as the most
successful sports bettor in the world.”

Esdicul’s contribution is a
strange number, unlike all the others which are rounded off to three zeroes. The
figure may make sense, however, if it were a foreign currency conversion. What
currency does $811,697 equal? We can only speculate. Using today’s rates,
Esdicul’s contribution equals 6,298,308 Hong Kong dollars, or 606,491 euros, or
517,388 British pounds or 3,044,756 Saudi riyals.

Why would a Hong Kong
individual contribute as much as onehalf of J Street’s budget? Actually,
Esdicul’s contribution is in line with J Street’s corrupt taking of money from
pro-Saudi activists, Arab- American leaders, Muslim activists, State Department
Arabists, a Palestinian billionaire and even a Turkish American who helped
produce the anti-American and anti-Semitic film Valley of the
Wolves.

According to the US Federal Election Commission, the largest
contribution to J Street’s Political Action Committee is $36,000 from a Latin
teacher in Teton Village, Wyoming named Bob Morris. How do you say “strange” in
Latin? With such contributions, it’s easy to understand how J Street’s operation
on Capitol Hill grew exponentially in the past 12 months.

According to
lobbying records on file at the clerk of the House of Representatives and the
secretary of the Senate, J Street’s lobbying budget went from under $5,000 in
the first quarter of 2009, with one registered lobbyist, to $130,000 in the
first quarter of 2010, when J Street registered six lobbyists.

The
$811,687 contribution from Hong Kong should raise the question whether the
lobbyists need to register as foreign agents and not domestic
lobbyists.

Last week J Street published ads in The New York Times and The
Wall Street Journal demanding that Israel “freeze settlement
growth.” (There were no parallel J Street demands on the Palestinians to
stop jihadi incitement in the PA’s newspapers, radio and television networks.)
“I would guess the two ads cost J Street a few hundred thousand dollars,” wrote
one Jewish anti-Israel writer.

Now we know who pays for J Street’s ads,
and running ads or hiring lobbyists to influence American policy could require
foreign agent registration.

In recent months J Street endorsed several
dozen candidates for congressional elections, and its political action committee
has distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to its favorite
candidates.

How many of the endorsees will rush to reject the J Street
favors now that the organization has emerged as a Soros and foreign front? Give
J Street credit, though: It did succeed in identifying a leftist constituency
looking for a voice in Washington. But The Washington Times exposé is so
devastating to J Street’s credibility and standing in Washington that its
constituency needs a new champion, one free of intrigues, lies and
corruption.

The writer served as a senior diplomat in Israel’s embassy in
Washington.He is a public affairs consultant and blogs at
www.lennybendavid.com.

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